Kremlin rejects Russian winter Olympics doping allegations

The Kremlin yesterday dismissed allegations that Russia had run a sophisticated doping programme at the last winter Olympics as treacherous slander, calling the ex-head of the country’s anti-doping laboratory “a turncoat.”

Two Russian winter sportsmen named as cheats by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former lab chief who has since fled to the United States, also denied wrongdoing, saying the charges were part of a campaign to besmirch the name of Russian sport.

Russia, already battling to overturn a ban on its athletes taking part in this year’s Rio summer Olympics, has been thrown on the defensive after a New York Times report cited Rodchenkov as saying he ran a doping programme at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics which included at least 15 medal winners.